D-Street continue to remain choppy, benchmarks trade near neutral lines

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive terrain, as investors opted a cautious approach ahead of key macro data slated to be announced later in the week. Overall sentiments remained down-beat after Moody’s said a weak monsoon is likely to be credit-negative for India as it is expected to push up food inflation as well as government deficits. IMD had revised its monsoon forecast for 2015 from below normal to deficit. However, buying in banking space provided some strength to markets after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that banks can undertake a strategic debt restructuring of a stressed assets by converting loan dues into equity shares.

Weak trend in global markets amid concerns of an early interest rate hike by the US Fed after Friday’s strong jobs report mainly dampened the mood. All the Asian markets were trading in red at this point of time amid worries about Greece. European counters were trading lower in early deals with investors awaiting U.K. trade data for April and the second estimate of Eurozone first-quarter GDP figures for further clues to the region's economic recovery.

Back home, on the sectoral front, metal, consumer durables and banking witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while healthcare, realty and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 856 shares on the gaining side against 1463 shares on the losing side while 103 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26526.11, up by 3.02 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 26446.50 and 26585.90. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.42%, while Small cap index lost 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.90%, Consumer Durables up by 0.50%, Bankex up by 0.38%, Infrastructure up by 0.12% and Power up by 0.08%, while Healthcare down by 1.33%, Realty down by 1.13%, Auto down by 0.51%, Capital Goods down by 0.43% and TECK down by 0.39% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.93%, Hindalco up by 2.03%, ICICI Bank up by 1.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.31% and Axis Bank up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.23%, Cipla down by 1.98%, Sun Pharma down by 1.54%, ITC down by 0.96% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Paris-based think tank Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that Indian economy is witnessing “stable growth momentum” and mixed trends are seen in other parts of the world including China and the US. Pegging the growth rate at 7.4 percent for 2016, the OECD said that decline in oil prices would reduce pressures on the current account deficit, inflation and subsidies.

OECD, a grouping of 34 countries, which has projected India's growth to remain 'strong and stable' at 7.3 percent in 2015 on the back of revival in investments, said that India’s Composite Leading Indicators (CLIs), that are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend, continue to point to stable growth momentum and to easing growth in China.

Regarding other nations, OECD said the CLIs point to firming growth in the euro area, particularly in France and Italy, while growth momentum shows signs of easing in Canada and the US. It also anticipates stable growth momentum in the UK, Germany and Japan, and tentative signs of a positive change are emerging in Russia. The think tank has however said that a loss in growth momentum remains the outlook for Brazil.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8030.85, down by 13.30 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8007.55 and 8057.15. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.93%, Hindalco up by 1.95%, ICICI Bank up by 1.32%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.20% and Axis Bank up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 4.40%, Cipla down by 2.41%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.35%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.26% and PNB down by 2.10% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading red; Hang Seng lost 0.97%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.76%, Jakarta Composite declined by 2.61%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased by 0.34%, Taiwan Weighted lost 1.88%, KOSPI Index dipped by 0.0.06%, Shanghai Composite slipped 0.36% and Straits Times was down by 0.36%.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX dropped 0.48%, UK’s FTSE declined 0.22% and France’s CAC was down by 0.23%.